Voldemort actor condemns “appalling” online abuse of J.K. Rowling

Over the past few years, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has become an unlikely lightning rod for controversy thanks to her transphobic beliefs, expressed first on Twitter and later in a novella-length essay published on her website. In short, she misgendered trans people, implied that they’re dangerous or confused, and generally peddled in fear-mongering stereotypes that are disproven with a glance at the research or by talking to trans people about their experiences.

That said, Rowling couches her arguments in polite language and is outwardly supportive of LGBTQ+ people, which is at odds with the way a lot of her transphobic colleagues speak and write about trans people. I sometimes think that people look at Rowling’s rhetoric and assume that, because it doesn’t look like traditional hate speech, it can’t be harmful. But I think that’s a misunderstanding of the way bigotry works.

Bigotry isn’t bad because it’s mean or crude (although it often is when bigots think they get away with it). Bigotry is bad because it poses political and material dangers to people already relegated to the margins of society. As probably the best known and most influential author in the world, Rowling’s words have sway; policy-makers may actually listen to her when, say, considering rules regarding transgender healthcare or how to treat transgender people in public spaces. And since she’s advocating against trans people having reasonable access to healthcare or being allowed in bathrooms and changing rooms that match their gender, her words have potential to do actual harm.

This is so even though Rowling tends to frame her arguments as being inspired by “concern” for trans youth, or because of feminist principles, neither of which are things that immediately set off our bigotry detection alarms. Her quiet advocacy of transphobic policies probably does more harm than if she were frothing at the mouth with hate, because her arguments can slip past the defenses of people trained to think that if bigotry isn’t “mean,” it isn’t bigotry.

Ralph Fiennes defends J.K. Rowling from “disgusting” attacks online

On the other side of things, lots of people have said very mean things about Rowling, particularly on Twitter, where cruelty reigns free and any little argument can turn into the World War II of words in the space of a few minutes. For example, when Rowling tweeted earlier this year in support of author Salman Rushdie, who had survived an attempt on his life, an anonymous Twitter user replied: “Don’t worry you are next.” Police got involved with that, as they should; that is a death threat and should be taken seriously.

Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, rightly pointed out to The New York Times that these kinds of attacks are unacceptable. “J.K. Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings,” he said. “It’s about how you become a better, stronger, more morally centered human being. The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling.”

"I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s not some obscene, über-right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’ And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman."

I don’t think Fiennes is particularly wrong about any of this stuff; Rowling isn’t an “über-right-wing fascist,” and verbal attacks on her online are despicable. But I also ask myself what’s more harmful: angry fans rage-tweeting at J.K. Rowling, who is a millionaire hundreds of times over and can insulate herself from danger; or J.K. Rowling using her enormous platform to advocate for the further disenfranchisement of trans people?

To me, it’s obviously the latter, and I’m suspicious of media narratives that frame the former as the greater danger. But I get why it happens, because a lot of the fans attacking J.K. Rowling are outwardly mean and she is outwardly polite, and mean language catches our attention. But at minimum, the story is more complicated than that.

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h/t Variety